Shadow of a Shade
My sister Lettie has lived with me ever since I had a home of my own. She was my little housekeeper before I married. Now she is my wife’s constant companion, and the ‘darling auntie’ of my children, who go to her for comfort, advice, and aid in all their little troubles and perplexities. But, though she has a comfortable home, and loving hearts around her, she wears a grave, melancholy look on her face, which puzzles acquaintances and grieves friends. A disappointment! Yes, the old story of a lost lover is the reason for Lattie’s looks. She has had good offers often; but since she lost the first love of her heart she has never indulged in the happy dream of loving and being loved. George Mason was a cousin of my wife’s–a sailor by profession. He and Lettie met one another at our wedding, and fell in love at first sight. George’s father had seen service before him on the great mysterious sea, and had been especially known as a good Arctic sailor, having shared in more than one expedition in search of the North Pole and the North-West Passage. It was not a matter of surprise to me, therefore, when George volunteered to go out in the Pioneer, which was being fitted out for a cruise in search of Franklin and his missing expedition. There was a fascination about such an undertaking that I felt I could not have resisted had I been in his place. Of course, Lettie did not like the idea at all, but he silenced her by telling her that men who volunteered for Arctic search were never lost sight of, and that he should not make as much advance in his profession in a dozen years as he would in the year or so of this expedition. I cannot say that Lettie, even after this, was quite satisfied with the notion of his going, but, at all events, she did not argue against it any longer. But the grave look, which is now habitual with her, but was a rare thing in her young and happy days, passed over her face sometimes when she thought no one was looking. My younger brother, Harry, was at this time an academy student. He was only a beginner then. Now he is pretty well known in the art world, and his pictures command fair prices. Like all beginners in art, he was full of fancies and theories. He would have been a pre-Raphaelite, only pre-Raphaelism had not been invented then. His peculiar craze was for what he styled the Venetian School. Now, it chanced that George had a fine Italian- looking head, and Harry persuaded him to sit to him for his portrait. It was a fair likeness, but a very moderate work of art. The background was so very dark, and George’s naval costume so very deep in colour, that the face came out too white and staring. It was a three-quarter picture; but only one hand showed in it, leaning on the hilt of a sword. As George said, he looked much more like the commander of a Venetian galley than a modern mate. However, the picture pleased Lettie, who did not care much about art provided the resemblance was good. So the picture was duly framed–in a tremendously heavy frame, of Harry’s ordering–and hung up in the dining-room. And now the time for George’s departure was growing nearer. The Pioneer was nearly ready to sail, and her crew only waited orders. The officers grew acquainted with each other before sailing, which was an advantage. George took up very warmly with the surgeon, Vincent Grieve, and, with my permission, brought him to dinner once or twice. ‘Poor chap, he has no friends nearer than the Highlands, and it’s precious lonely work.’ 'Bring him by all means, George! You know that any friends of yours will be welcome here.’ So Vincent Grieve came. I am bound to say I was not favourably impressed by him, and almost wished I had not consented to his coming. He was a tall, pale, fair young man, with a hard Scotch face and a cold, grey eye. There was something in his expression, too, that was unpleasant–something cruel or crafty, or both. I considered that it was very bad taste for him to pay such marked attention to Lettie, coming, as he did, as the friend of her fiancé. He kept by her constantly and anticipated George in all the little attentions which a lover delights to pay. I think George was a little put out about it, though he said nothing, attributing his friend’s offence to lack of breeding. Lettie did not like it at all. She knew that she was not to have George with her much longer, and she was anxious to have him to herself as much as possible. But as Grieve was her lover’s friend she bore the infliction with the best possible patience. The surgeon did not seem to perceive in the least that he was interfering where he had no business. He was quite self-possessed and happy, with one exception. The portrait of George seemed to annoy him. He had uttered a little impatient exclamation when he first saw it which drew my attention to him; and I noticed that he tried to avoid looking at it. At last, when dinner came, he was told to sit exactly facing the picture. He hesitated for an instant and then sat down, but almost immediately rose again. ‘It’s very childish and that sort of thing,’ he stammered, ‘but I cannot sit opposite that picture.’ ‘It is not high art,’ I said, ‘and may irritate a critical eye.’ ‘I know nothing about art,’ he answered, ‘but it is one of those unpleasant pictures whose eyes follow you about the room. I have an inherited horror of such pictures. My mother married against her father’s will, and when I was born she was so ill she was hardly expected to live. When she was sufficiently recovered to speak without delirious rambling she implored them to remove a picture of my grandfather that hung in the room, and which she vowed made threatening faces at her. It’s superstitious, but constitutional–I have a horror of such paintings!’ I believe George thought this was a ruse of his friend’s to get a seat next to Lettie; but I felt sure it was not, for I had seen the alarmed expression of his face. At night, when George and his friend were leaving, I took an opportunity to ask the former, half in a joke, if he should bring the surgeon to see us again. George made a very hearty assertion to the contrary, adding that he was pleasant enough company among men at an inn, or on board ship, but not where ladies were concerned. But the mischief was done. Vincent Grieve took advantage of the introduction and did not wait to be invited again. He called the next day, and nearly ever’ day after. He was a more frequent visitor than George now, for George was obliged to attend to his duties, and they kept him on board the Pioneer pretty constantly, whereas the surgeon, having seen to the supply of drugs, etc., was pretty well at liberty. Lettie avoided him as much as possible, but he generally brought, or professed to bring, some little message from George to her, so that he had an excuse for asking to see her. On the occasion of his last visit–the day before the Pioneer sailed– Lettie came to me in great distress. The young cub had actually the audacity to tell her he loved her. He knew, he said, about her engagement to George, but that did not prevent another man from loving her too. A man could no more help falling in love than he could help taking a fever. Lettie stood upon her dignity and rebuked him severely; but he told her he could see no harm in telling her of his passion, though he knew it was a hopeless one. ‘A thousand things may happen,’ he said at last, ‘to bring your engagement with George Mason to an end. Then perhaps you will not forget that another loves you!’ I was very angry, and was forthwith going to give him my opinion on his conduct, when Lettie told me he was gone, that she had bade him go and had forbidden him the house. She only told me in order to protect herself, for she did not intend to say anything to George, for fear it should lead to a duel or some other violence. That was the last we saw of Vincent Grieve before the Pioneer sailed. George came the same evening, and was with us till daybreak, when he had to tear himself away and join his ship. After shaking hands with him at the door, in the cold, grey, drizzly dawn, I turned back into the dining-room, where poor Lettie was sobbing on the sofa. I could not help starting when I looked at George’s portrait, which hung above her. The strange light of daybreak could hardly account for the extraordinary pallor of the face. I went close to it and looked hard at it. I saw that it was covered with moisture, and imagined that it had possibly made it look so pale. As for the moisture, I supposed poor Lettie had been kissing the beloved’s portrait, and that the moisture was caused by her tears. It was not till a long time after, when I was jestingly telling Harry how his picture had been caressed, that I learnt the error of my conjecture. Lettie assured me most solemnly that I was mistaken in supposing she had kissed it. ‘It was the varnish blooming, I expect,’ said Harry. And thus the subject was dismissed, for I said no more, though I knew well enough, in spite of my not being an artist, that the bloom of varnish was quite another sort of thing. The Pioneer sailed. We received–or, rater, Lettie received–two letters from George, which he had taken the opportunity of sending by homeward-bound whalers. In the second he said it was hardly likely he should have an opportunity of sending another, as they were sailing into high latitudes–into the solitary sea, to which none but expedition ships ever penetrated. They were all in high spirits, he said, for they had encountered very little ice and hoped to find clear water further north than usual. Moreover, he added, Grieve had held a sinecure so far, for there had not been a single case of illness on board. Then came a long silence, and a year crept away very slowly for poor Lettie. Once we heard of the expedition from the papers. They were reported as pushing on and progressing favourably by a wandering tribe of Esquimaux with whom the captain of a Russian vessel fell in. They had laid the ship up for the winter, and were taking the boats on sledges, and believed they had met with traces of the lost crews that seemed to show they were on the right track. The winter passed again, and spring came. It was a balmy, bright spring such as we get occasionally, even in this changeable and uncertain climate of ours. One evening we were sitting in the dining-room with the window open, for, although we had long given up fires, the room was so oppressively warm that we were glad of the breath of the cool evening breeze. Lettie was working. Poor child, though she never murmured, she was evidently pining at George’s long absence. Harry was leaning out of the window, studying the evening effect on the fruit blossom, which was wonderfully early and plentiful, the season was so mild. I was sitting at the table, near the lamp, reading the paper. Suddenly there swept into the room a chill. It was not a gust of cold wind, for the curtain by the open window did not swerve in the least. But the deathly cold pervaded the room–came, and was gone in an instant. Lettie shuddered, as I did, with the intense icy feeling. She looked up. ‘How curiously cold it has got all in a minute,’ she said. ‘We are having a taste of poor George’s Polar weather,’ I said with a smile. At the same moment I instinctively glanced towards his portrait. What I saw struck me dumb, A rush of blood, at fever heat, dispelled the numbing influence of the chill breath that had seemed to freeze me. I have said the lamp was lighted; but it was only that I might read with comfort, for the violet twilight was still so full of sunset that the room was not dark. But as I looked at the picture I saw it had undergone a strange change. I saw it as plainly as possible. It was no delusion, coined for the eye by the brain. I saw, in the place of George’s head, a ginning skull! I stared at it hard; but it was no trick of fancy. I could see the hollow orbits, the gleaming teeth, the fleshless cheekbones–it was the head of death! Without saying a word, I rose from my chair and walked straight up to the painting. As I drew nearer a sort of mist seemed to pass before it; and as I stood close to it, I saw only the face of George. The spectral skull had vanished. ‘Poor George!’ I said unconsciously. Lettie looked up. The tone of my voice had alarmed her, the expression of my face did not reassure her. ‘What do you mean? Have you heard anything? Oh, Robert, in mercy tell me!’ She got up and came over to me and, laying her hands on my arm, looked up into my face imploringly. ‘No, my dear; how should I hear? Only I could not help thinking of the privation and discomfort he must have gone through. I was reminded of it by the cold–‘ ‘Cold!’ said Harry, who had left the window by this time. ‘Cold! what on earth are you talking about? Cold, such an evening as this! You must have had a touch of ague, I should think.’ ‘Both Lettie and I felt it bitterly cold a minute or two ago. Did not you feel it?’ ‘Not a bit; and as I was three parts out of the window I ought to have felt it if anyone did.’ It was curious, but that strange chill had been felt only in the room. It was not the night wind, but some supernatural breath connected with the dread apparition I had seen. It was, indeed, the chill of polar winter–the icy shadow of the frozen North. ‘What is the day of the month, Harry?’ I asked. ‘Today–the 23 rd, I think,’ he answered; then added, taking up the newspaper I had been reading: ‘Yes, here you are. Tuesday, February the 23rd, if the Daily News tells truth, which I suppose it does. Newspapers can afford to tell the truth about dates, whatever they may do about art.’ Harry had been rather roughly handled by the critic of a morning paper for one of his pictures a few days before, and he was a little angry with journalism generally. Presently Lettie left the mom, and I told Harry what I had felt and seen, and told him to take note of the date, for I feared that some mischance had befallen George. I’ll put it down in my pocket-book, Bob. But you and Lettie must have had a touch of the cold shivers, and your stomach or fancy misled you–they’re the same thing, you know. Besides, as regards the picture, there’s nothing in that! There is a skull there, of course. As Tennyson says: Any face, however full, Padded round with flesh and fat, Is but modeled on a skull. The skull’s there–just as in even good figure-subject the nude is there under the costumes. You fancy that is a mere coat of paint. Nothing of the kind! Art lives, sir! That is just as much a real head as yours is with all the muscles and bones, just the same. That’s what makes the difference between art and rubbish.’ This was a favourite theory of Harry’s, who had not yet developed from the dreamer into the worker. As I did not care to argue with him, I allowed the subject to drop after we had written down the date in our pocket-books. Lettie sent down word presently that she did not feel well and had gone to bed. My wife came down presently and asked what had happened. She had been up with the children and had gone in to see what was the matter with Lettie. ‘I think it was very imprudent to sit with the window open, dear. I know the evenings are warm, but the night air strikes cold at times– at any rate, Lettie seems to have caught a violent cold, for she is shivering very much. I am afraid she has got a chill from the open windows.’ I did not say anything to her then, except that both Lettie and I had felt a sudden coldness; for I did not care to enter into an explanation again, for I could see Harry was inclined to laugh at me for being so superstitious. At night, however, in our own room, I told my wife what had occurred, and what my apprehensions were. She was so upset and alarmed that I almost repented having done so. The next morning Lettie was better again, and as we did not either of us refer to the events of the preceding night the circumstance appeared to be forgotten by us all. But from that day I was ever inwardly dreading the arrival of bad news. And at last it came, as I expected. One morning, just as I was coming downstairs to breakfast, there came a knock at the door, and Harry made his appearance. It was a very early visit from him, for he generally used to spend his mornings at the studio, and drop in on his way home at night. He was looking pale and agitated. ‘Lettie’s not down, is she, yet?’ he asked; and then, before I could answer, added another question: ‘What newspaper do you take?’ ‘The Daily News,’ I answered. ‘Why?’ ‘She’s not down?’ ‘No.’ ‘Thank God! Look here!’ He took a paper from his pocket and gave it to me, pointing out a short paragraph at the bottom of one of the columns. I knew what was coming the moment he spoke about Lettie. The paragraph was headed, ‘Fatal Accident to one of the Officers of the Pioneer Expedition Ship’. It stated that news had been received at the Admiralty stating that the expedition had failed to find the missing crews, but had come upon some traces of them. Want of stores and necessaries had compelled them to turn back without following those traces up; but the commander was anxious, as soon as the ship could be refitted, to go out and take up the trail where he left it. An unfortunate accident had deprived him of one of his most promising officers, Lieutenant Mason, who was precipitated from an iceberg and killed while out shooting with the surgeon. He was beloved by all, and his death had flung a gloom over the gallant little troop of explorers. ‘It’s not in the News today, thank goodness, Bob,’ said Harry, who had been searching that paper while I was reading the one he brought–‘but you must keep a sharp look-out for some days and not let Lettie see it when it appears, as it is certain to do sooner or later.’ Then we both of us looked at each other with tears in our eyes. ‘Poor George!–poor Lettie!’ we sighed softly. ‘But she must be told at some time or other?’ I said despairingly. ‘I suppose so,’ said Harry; ‘but it would kill her to come on it suddenly like this. Where’s your wife?’ She was with the children, but I sent up for her and told her the ill-tidings. She had a hard struggle to conceal her emotion, for Lettie’s sake. But the tears would flow in spite of her efforts. How shall I ever find courage to tell her?’ she asked. ‘Hush!’ said Harry, suddenly grasping her arm and looking towards the door. I turned. There stood Lettie, with her face pale as death, with her lips apart, and with a blind look about her eyes. She had come in without our hearing her. We never learnt how much of the story she had overheard; but it was enough to tell her the worst. We all sprang towards her; but she only waved us away, turned round, and went upstairs again without saying a word. My wife hastened up after her and found her on her knees by the bed, insensible. ‘The doctor was sent for, and restoratives were promptly administered. She came to herself again, but lay dangerously ill for some weeks from the shock. It was about a month after she was well enough to come downstairs again that I saw in the paper an announcement of the arrival of the Pioneer. The news had no interest for any of us now, so I said nothing about it. The mere mention of the vessel’s name would have caused the poor girl pain. One afternoon shortly after this, as I was writing a letter, there came a loud knock at the front door. I looked up from my writing and listened; for the voice which enquired if I was in sounded strange, but yet not altogether unfamiliar. As I looked up, puzzling whose it could he, my eye rested accidentally upon poor George’s portrait. Was I dreaming or awake? I have told you that the one hand was resting on a sword. I could see now distinctly that the forefinger was raised, as if in warning. I looked at it hard, to assure myself it was no fancy, and then I perceived, standing out bright and distinct on the pale face, two large drops, as if of blood. I walked up to it, expecting the appearance to vanish, as the skull had done. It did not vanish; but the uplifted finger resolved itself into a little white moth which had settled on the canvas. The red drops were fluid, and certainly not blood, though I was at a loss for the time to account for them. The moth seemed to be in a torpid state, so I took it off the picture and placed it under an inverted wine-glass on the mantelpiece. All this took less time to do than to describe. As I turned from the mantelpiece the servant brought in a card, saying the gentleman was waiting in the hall to know if I would see him. On the card was the name of ‘Vincent Grieve, of the exploring vessel Pioneer’. ‘Thank Heaven, Lettie is out,’ thought I; and then added aloud to the servant, ‘Show him in here; and Jane, if your mistress and Miss Lettie come in before the gentleman goes, tell them I have someone with me on business and do not wish to be disturbed.’ I went to the door to meet Grieve. As he crossed the threshold, and before he could have seen the portrait, he stopped, shuddered and turned white, even to his thin lips. ‘Cover that picture before I come in,’ he said hurriedly, in a low voice. ‘You remember the effect it had upon me. Now, with the memory of poor Mason, it would be worse than ever.’ I could understand his feelings better now than at first; for I had come to look on the picture with some awe myself. So I took the cloth off a little round table that stood under the window and hung it over the portrait. When I had done so Grieve came in. He was greatly altered. He was thinner and paler than ever; hollow-eyed and hollow-checked. He had acquired a strange stoop, too, and his eyes had lost the crafty look for a look of terror, like that of a hunted beast. I noticed that he kept glancing sideways every instant, as if unconsciously. It looked as if he heard someone behind him. I had never liked the man; but now I felt an insurmountable repugnance to him–so great a repugnance that, when I came to think of it, I felt pleased that the incident of covering the picture at his request had led to my not shaking hands with him. I felt that I could not speak otherwise than coldly to him; indeed, I had to speak with painful plainness. I told him that, of course, I was glad to see him back, but that I could not ask him to continue to visit us. I should be glad to hear the particulars of poor George’s death, but that I could not let him see my sister, and hinted, as delicately as I could, at the impropriety of which he had been guilty when he last visited. He took it all very quietly, only giving a long, wean sigh when I told him I must beg him not to repeat his visit. He looked so weak and ill that I was obliged to ask him to take a glass of wine—an offer which he seemed to accept with great pleasure. I got out the sherry and biscuits and placed them on the table between us, and he took a glass and drank it off greedily. It was not without some difficulty that I could get him to tell me of George’s death. He related, with evident reluctance, how they had gone out to shoot a white bear which they had seen on an iceberg stranded along the shore. The top of the berg was ridged like the roof of a house, sloping down on one side to the edge of a tremendous overhanging precipice. They had scrambled along the ridge in order to get nearer the game, when George incautiously ventured on the sloping side. ‘I called out to him’, said Grieve, ‘and begged him to come back, but too late. The surface was as smooth and slippery as glass. He tried to turn back, but slipped and fell. And then began a horrible scene. Slowly, slowly, but with ever-increasing motion, he began to slide down towards the edge. There was nothing to grasp at–no irregularity or projection on the smooth face of the ice. I tore off my coat, and hastily attaching it to the stock of my gun, pushed the latter towards him; but it did not reach far enough. Before I could lengthen it, by tying my cravat to it, he had slid yet further away, and more quickly. I shouted in agony; but there was no one within hearing. He, too, saw his fate was sealed; and he could only tell me to bring his last farewell to you, and–and to her!’–Here Grieve’s voice broke–‘and it was all over! He clung to the edge of the precipice instinctively for one second, and was gone!’ Just as Grieve uttered the last word, his jaw fell; his eyeballs seemed ready to start from his head; he sprang to his feet, pointed at something behind me, and then flinging up his arms, fell, with a scream, as if he had been shot. He was seized with an epileptic fit. I instinctively looked behind me as I hurried to raise him from the floor. The cloth had fallen from the picture, where the face of George, made paler than ever by the gouts of red, looked sternly down. I rang the bell. Luckily, Harry had come in; and, when the servant told him what was the matter, he came in and assisted me in restoring Grieve to consciousness. Of course, I covered the painting up again. When he was quite himself again, Grieve told me he was subject to fits occasionally. He seemed very anxious to learn if he had said or done anything extraordinary while he was in the fit, and appeared reassured when I said he had not. He apologized for the trouble he had given, and said as soon as he was strong enough he would take his leave. He was leaning on the mantelpiece as he said this. The little white moth caught his eye. ‘So you have had someone else from the Pioneer here before me?’ he said, nervously. I answered in the negative, asking what made him think so. ‘Why, this little white moth is never found in such southern latitudes. It is one of the last signs of life northward. Where did you get it?’ ‘I caught it here, in this room,’ I answered. ‘That is very strange. I never heard of such a thing before. We shall hear of showers of blood soon, I should not wonder.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Oh, these little fellows emit little drops of a red-looking fluid at certain seasons, and sometimes so plentifully that the superstitious think it is a shower of blood. I have seen the snow quite stained in places. Take care of it, it is a rarity in the south.’ I noticed, after he left, which he did almost immediately, that there was a drop of red fluid on the marble under the wine-glass. The blood-stain on the picture was accounted for; but how came the moth here? And there was another strange thing about the man, which I had scarcely been able to assure myself of in the room, where there were cross-lights, but about which there was no possible mistake, when I saw him walking away up the street. ‘Harry, here–quick!’ I called to my brother, who at once came to the window. ‘You’re an artist, tell me, is there anything strange about that man?’ ‘No; nothing that I can see,’ said Harry, but then suddenly, in an altered tone, added, ‘Yes, there is. By Jove, he has a double shadow!’ That was the explanation of his sidelong glances, of the habitual stoop. There was a something always at his side, which none could see, but which east a shadow. He turned, presently, and saw us at the window. Instantly, he crossed the road to the shady side of the street. I told Harry all that had passed, and we agreed that it would be as well not to say a word to Lettie. Two days later, when I returned from a visit to Harry’s studio, I found the whole house in confusion. I learnt from Lettie that while my wife was upstairs, Grieve had called, had not waited for the servant to announce him, but had walked straight into the dining-room, where Lettie was sitting. She noticed that he avoided looking at the picture, and, to make sure of not seeing it, had seated himself on the sofa just beneath it. He had then, in spite of Lettie’s angry remonstrances, renewed his offer of love, strengthening it finally by assuring her that poor George with his dying breath had implored him to seek her, and watch over her, and marry her. ‘I was so indignant I hardly knew how to answer him,’ said Lettie. ‘When, suddenly, just as he uttered the last words, there came a twang like the breaking of a guitar–and–I hardly know how to describe it– but the portrait had fallen, and the corner of the heavy frame had struck him on the head, cutting it open, and rendering him insensible.’.They had carried him upstairs, by the direction of the doctor, for whom my wife at once sent on hearing what had occurred. He was laid on the couch in my dressing-room, where I went to see him. I intended to reproach him for coming to the house, despite my prohibition, but I found him delirious. The doctor said it was a queer case; for, though the blow was a severe one, it was hardly enough to account for the symptoms of brain-fever. When he learnt that Grieve had but just returned in the Pioneer from the North, he said it was possible that the privation and hardship had told on his constitution and sown the seeds of the malady. We sent for a nurse, who was to sit up with him, by the doctor’s directions. The rest of my story is soon told. In the middle of the night I was roused by a loud scream. I slipped on my clothes, and rushed out to find the nurse, with Lettie in her arms, in a faint. We carried her into her room, and then the nurse explained the mystery to us. It appears that about midnight Grieve sat up in bed, and began to talk. And he said such terrible things that the nurse became alarmed. Nor was she much reassured when she became aware that the light of her single candle flung what seemed to be two shadows of the sick man on the wall. Terrified beyond measure, she had crept into Lettie’s room, and confided her fears to her; and Lettie, who was a courageous and kindly girl, dressed herself, and said she would sit with her. She, too, saw the double shadow–but what she heard was far more terrible. Grieve was sitting up in bed, gazing at the unseen figure to which the shadow belonged. In a voice that trembled with emotion, he begged the haunting spirit to leave him, and prayed its forgiveness. ‘You know the crime was not premeditated. It was a sudden temptation of the devil that made me strike the blow, and fling you over the precipice. It was the devil tempting me with the recollection of her exquisite face–of the tender love that might have been mine, but for you. But she will not listen to me. See, she turns away from me, as if she knew I was your murderer, George Mason!’ It was Lettie who repeated in a horrified whisper this awful confession. I could see it all now! As I was about to tell Lettie of the many strange things I had concealed from her, the nurse, who had gone to see her patient, came running back in alarm. Vincent Grieve had disappeared. He had risen in his delirious terror, had opened the window, and leaped out. Two days later his body was found in the river. A curtain hangs now before poor George’s portrait, though it is no longer connected with any supernatural marvels; and never, since the night of Vincent Grieve’s death, have we seen aught of that most mysterious haunting presence–the Shadow of a Shade. The End. Category:Historical Archive/PD